Snowing like Crazy! 12.30.21

Amazing how much it snowed. Not cold enough so far to cause any damage. Still the coldest months to come. We will see how it goes.

My Grandparents in their Garden. About Mid1960s.

This is my favorite photo of my mom's parents. They lived in Western Illinois (Mt. Sterling). It's diffficult to see the garden in this photo. My grandfather, Glenn Wilbur Alcorn, always grew sweet potatoes, tomatoes, potatoes, sweetcorn, turnips, dahlias, zinnias, balsam. I'm sure those are dahlias to her right and balsam to his left. I recall my mom telling me that his doctor told him to garden, after he had a heart attack. I don't remember if my grandmother, Ivy Icenogle Alcorn, also worked in the garden. I'm thinking she must have, but my recollection is more of him.

More pH Tests. 12.28.2021

This is the pH of the bed that currently contains garlic. This is the only raised bed whose soil is entirely from our property, having been salvaged from a neighbor's road building on an easement on our property. This soil color is dark brown, compared to the purchased topsoil being black.

This is New Raised Bed #1. This time I'm doing it right, soil:distilled water 1:1 and letting it sit in a tall jar overnight to settle and clarify. I also did that with the garlic bed soil.

This is comparison of distilled vs. tap water. I assume the pH paper is calibrated with distilled water, since that is what they direct us to use, and I did. D for distilled and T for tap. Our tap is well water run through a purifier and softener system. It's not as acidic as distilled water.

I feel much more reassured about the adding lime and/or wood ashes. New raised bed #1 (and #2) soil is from the top level of the beds, which is soil I have amended with compost, lime, wood ashes, las year. It's certainly not alkaline, and the garlic grew very well, so I think I have a good system going.

Topsoil pH and Chemical Tests. 12.27.21

I used a home test to check the pH, N P K content of the topsoil I've been using to fill raised beds. This is a test of the un-amended soil, nothing added. pH

Nitrogen

Phosphorus

Potassium

pH, using pH strips and dilution 1:5 to make it readable.

I think these are a little difficult to interpret, but maybe OK. If Im reading correctly, pH using the liquid reagent is about 6, maybe 6.5. Nitrogen looks depleted and both phosphorus and potassium look deficient. By the pH strip method, the pH is about 6, maybe 6.5 so similar to the liquid reagent test. I'm not surprisd the topsoil would be depleted. Now I feel more comfortable fertilizing and adding a liming agent (wood ashes).

Fungi. 12.26.2021

There are mushrooms growing all of the time. Last winter I spread a layer of tree chips in several areas, often on top of a newspaper layer. The newspaper is completely gone now, and the woodchips are starting to disappear. Meanwhile mushrooms continue to pop up. They like growing in those wood chips.

The benefits of fungi are legion. The soil should be interlaced with fungal mycelium, for soil health and therefore plant health. Often, I remove some mushroom caps and place them on the raised bed soil the get them started in the new soil.